[Journal entry for Jnauary 3, 2019; Dillon Nature Preserve, Dillon Colorado]

My (Bill Menke’s) early afternoon solo hike.

While Dallas was at an appointment in Dillon, I set off from my parking spot on Village Place. The day is sunny and in the mid-twenties, Fahrenheit. I hiked down to the Dillon lakeshore via a pedestrian path that swiched down the hillside, passing a bronze sculpture of a man, wearing a cowboy hat and holding a book, and gesturing towards the lake. The lake is fully iced over, or nearly so, and the ice is thick enough to walk upon. Groups of people were ice fishing. Several had set up small tents for shelter. The lake surface groaned eerily; I suppose the long modulated chirps are generated by sound from cracking ice trapped in the water layer beneath the ice. I followed the lakeshore until I was adjacent to the high and narrow peninsula that hosts the Dillon Nature Preserve. I then bushwhacked up to Roberts Tunnel Access Road and followed it east to a trailhead that led into the preserve. About two feet of snow lay on the ground, but the trail was well packed and I had no trouble walking with just snow boots.

I followed the trail through an open meadow with wind-swept snow, passing the intersections of the Crossover and Meadow Trails and taking the Ridge Trail. It leads south up onto the ridge and follows the top of a high and steep cliff. I had seen this cliff from lake level when I kayaked by it in the summer, during the Family Reunion. It is a hogback formed by tilted quartzite rock strata. The Ridge Trail commands truly spectacular view of the Snake River Arm of the lake, a narrow, steep sided valley that opens out into the main part of the lake in the west. The trail has five or six viewpoints, some with benches, which offer different perspectives on the Arm and the surround hills: south down into the valley; east towards Keystone Ski Resort, west across the lake to Buffalo Mountain and the Tenmile Range. The westerly viewpoint offers a good view of Windy Point, the next peninsula to the south, where the Abbott Family Reunion was held in 2018. I could see many of the areas that we hiked around, snow-covered now but green and full of spring wildflowers then, but I could not see the big picnic pavilion, which is set back in a bay. A big Osprey aircraft, with its long propellers, flew by. I followed the trail until it reconnected with Roberts Tunnel Access Road, at a point a half mile west of the first trailhead. I then retraced my path along the road and along the lakeshore back to the Dillon. Most of anglers were wrapping up their ice fishing and were taking down their tents and packing up.

About three and a half hours.

My late afternoon hike with Dallas Abbott.

In the late afternoon, Dallas and I parked along Route 6 in Silverthorne, near the start of Roberts Tunnel Access Road (which is gated). The sunny weather has persisted, and the terrain is even more beautiful owing to the low sun angle. But the air is colder now, especially in the shade. We walk the road to the same trailhead that I had taken earlier in the afternoon, and head up the Ridge Trail. We walked to the easterly two overlooks, admiring the terrific views. We then followed an informal trail down the northerly flank of the ridge, until we intersected the Crossover Trail, which we took east, back to the road.

About two hours.